Welcome to the 4G Information Site

The fourth generation of mobile networks will truly turn the current mobile phone networks, in
to end to end IP based networks, couple this with the arrival of IPv6, every device in the world
will have a unique IP address, which will allow full IP based communications from a mobile
device, right to the core of the internet, and back out again. If 4G is implemented correctly, it
will truly harmonise global roaming, super high speed connectivity, and transparent end user
performance on every mobile communications device in the world.

4G is set to deliver 100mbps to a roaming mobile device globally, and up to 1gbps to a stationary
device. With this in mind, it allows for video conferencing, streaming picture perfect video and
much more.

It wont be just the phone networks that need to evolve, the increased traffic load on the internet
as a whole (imagine having 1 billion 100mb nodes attached to a network over night) will need to
expand, with faster backbones and oceanic links requiring major upgrade.

4G wont happen over night, it is estimated that it will be implemented by 2010, and if done
correctly, should take off rather quickly.

About 4G
Mobile devices are getting smaller, lighter, and more powerful; they have bigger screens and
longer battery life, more features and more capabilities. Things like watching the football game
on your mobile device, watching movies, videoconferencing, paying your bills and downloading
music to the palm of your hand will become second nature in the near future.

Bandwidth will always be the limiting factor in the development of applications and devices, be
it wired, or wireless. At the moment the wireless world doesn’t have a large-cell, high bandwidth
standard, that is capable of delivering the much needed speeds to a mobile device. The short fall
of 3G networks is clear, it’s just not fast enough, offering 384kbps doesn’t meet the requirements
of what the end user has come to expect these days. Some people see 3G as a stop-gap, until a
fully integrated IP network is created; some countries have even chosen to bypass 3G and head
straight to 4G, a method which has its advantages, and its disadvantages.

4G is set to be available around 2010, getting it right first time will make it a
general winner with the one billion mobile users around the world. The end user can
expect low cost per data bit, as well as speed and reliability, something which is
greatly needed, and will become second nature in the future.

Technology Companies with 4G networks are knocking on the door and mobile
operators are beginning to answer. 4G networks and Next Generation Networks
(NGNs) are becoming fast and very cost-effective solutions for those wanting an IP
built high-speed data capacities in the mobile network.
IP is pushing its way into the mobile wireless market,” said Visant Strategies Senior
Analyst Andy Fuertes, author of “The Road to 4G and NGN: Wireless IP Migration
Paths.” By 2010, the just-published study finds, there will be 113 million NGN and
4G users, with the market starting to take effect 2006 and 2007.

A handful of wireless technologies are set to join existing 2.5G and 3G standards, ,
as 4G and NGN vendors find a foothold in the mobile market. “The current race is
ultimately to wrestle control from the UMTS and CDMA2000 platforms,” Fuertes
said. “Siemens carrying Flarion’s Flash-OFDM as announced last week is a large
step forward for IP-based mobile wireless.”

Service Providers are considering new protocols in search of a migration to an all IP

network, a move expected to lower high-speed data costs and enable new services.
Some of these solutions are considered 3.5G or even 4G.

4G History
At the end of the 1940’s, the first radio telephone service was introduced, and was designed to
users in cars to the public land-line based telephone network. Then, in the sixties, a system
launched by Bell Systems, called IMTS, or, “Improved Mobile Telephone Service", brought
quite a few improvements such as direct dialling and more bandwidth. The very first analog
systems were based upon IMTS and were created in the late 60s and early 70s. The systems were
called "cellular" because large coverage areas were split into smaller areas or "cells", each cell is
served by a low power transmitter and receiver.

The 1G, or First Generation. 1G was an analog system, and was developed in the seventies, 1G
had two major improvements, this was the invention of the microprocessor, and the digital
transform of the control link between the phone and the cell site.

1G analog system for mobile communications saw two key improvements during the 1970s: the
invention of the microprocessor and the digitization of the control link between the mobilephone
and the cell site.

Advance mobile phone system (AMPS) was first launched by the US and is a 1G mobile system.
Based on FDMA, it allows users to make voice calls in 1 country

2G, or Second Generation

2G first appeared around the end of the 1980’s, the 2G system digitized the voice
signal, as well as the control link. This new digital system gave a lot better quality
and much more capacity (i.e. more people could use there phones at the same
time), all at a lower cost to the end consumer. Based on TDMA, the first commercial
network for use by the public was the Global system for mobile communication
(GSM).
3G, or Third Generation
3G systems promise faster communications services, entailing voice, fax and
Internet data transfer capabilities, the aim of 3G is to provide these services any
time, anywhere throughout the globe, with seamless roaming between standards.
ITU’s IMT-2000 is a global standard for 3G and has opened new doors to enabling
innovative services and application for instance, multimedia entertainment, and
location-based services, as well as a whole lot more. In 2001, Japan saw the first 3G
network launched.

3G technology supports around 144 Kbps, with high speed movement, i.e. in a
vehicle. 384 Kbps locally, and up to 2Mbps for fixed stations, i.e. in a building.

4G, or Forth Generation

For 1 and 2G standards, bandwidth maximum is 9.6 kbit/sec, This is approximately
6 times slower than an ISDN (Integrated services digital network). Rates did
increase by a factor of 3 with newer handsets to 28.8kbps. This is rarely the speed
though, as in crowded areas, when the network is busy, rates do drop dramatically.

Third generation mobile, data rates are 384 kbps (download) maximum, typically
around 200kbps, and 64kbps upload. These are comparable to home broadband
connections.

Fourth generation mobile communications will have higher data transmission rates
than 3G. 4G mobile data transmission rates are planned to be up to 100 megabits
per second on the move and 1000gigbits per second stationary, this is a
phenomenal amount of bandwidth, only comparable to the bandwidth workstations
get connected directly to a LAN.

To understand 4G, we need to know about 3G. So how did 3G start? The idea didn’t
come from network operators, but from device manufactures. In 1996 Nippon
Telephone & Telegraph (NTT) and Ericsson started development of 3G; then in 1997
in the USA the TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association) chose CDMA (Code
Division Multiple Access) as a technology for 3G; and then in 1998 the ETSI
(European Telecommunications Standards Institute) also chose CDMA; in the end, in
1998 wideband CDMA or W-CDMA and cdma2000 were decided for the Universal
Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS).

The two major radio standards used for 3G are W-CDMA (wideband code division
multiple access), and CDMA2000. W-CDMA is used in Europe, where CDMA2000 is
used in the USA. In CDMA, one signal carries the data, this is then multiplied with a
signal with a faster rate, that his more bandwidth, it uses TDM (Time Division
Multiplexing). CDMA200 uses CDM (common code division multiplexing).
Now we need to discuss the different access technologies, these are FDMA, TDMA
and CDMA.

The most common analog system is FDMA, or, Frequency Division Multiple Access. It
is a method where the spectrum is cut up into different frequencies and then this
chunk given to the users. At one time only one user is assigned to a frequency.
Because of this the frequency is closed, until the call is ended, or it is passed on to
another frequency. For a proper call to take place, two frequencies are needed, one
for sending and one for receiving, FDMA has been used for first generation analog
systems only, this is due to the large bandwidth wastage highlighted above.

TDMA, or Time Division Multiple Access makes use of the whole available spectrum,
unlike FDMA. Instead of splitting the slots by frequency, it splits them by time, over
all of the frequency. Each subscriber is given a time slot, as opposed to a frequency.
Therefore many uses can sit on one frequency, and have different time slots,
because the time slots are switched so rapidly, it seems like the channel is
permanently connected. TDMA is used for 2G networks

Code Division Multiple Access uses the spread spectrum method, the way it works
means its highly encrypted, so its no surprise it was developed and used by the
military. Unlike FDMA, CDMA allows the user to sit on all of the available frequencies
at the same time, and hop between then. Each call is identified by its unique code,
hence the term Code Division. CDMA is very bandwidth efficient. It also allows for
soft hand off, meaning it can communicate with more than one base station at any
one time, very handy isn’t it? No wonder it was chosen for 3G.

Onto 4G...
4G will provide unconceivable amounts of bandwidth to the palm of a user.
Matching current Local Area Network speeds, 4G networks will provide 100MBps on
the move. This is enough for studio quality video, multi channel surround sound and
much more. 4G will be based on OFDM – the next generation in access technologies
(read the technical section for more info on OFDM),

4G will change the way we work, live and play. Cheap end user costs, fast, always
on, reliable connectivity, where ever you are, what ever your doing. Some people
view 3G as a stop gap until the real 4G network arrives, something which is due
around 2010, and will impact every one, every where.

4G Technology
Some possible standards for the 4G system are 802.20, WiMAX (802.16), HSDPA, TDD
UMTS, UMTS and future versions of UMTS and proprietary networks from ArrayComm Inc.,
Navini Networks, Flarion Technologies, and 4G efforts in India, China and Japan.

The design is that 4G will be based on OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing),
which is the key enabler of 4G technology. Other technological aspects of 4G are adaptive
processing and smart antennas, both of which will be used in 3G networks and enhance rates
when used in with OFDM.

Currently 3G networks still send there data digitally over a single channel, OFDM is designed to
send data over hundreds of parallel streams, thus increasing the amount of information that can
be sent at a time over traditional CDMA networks.

4G Technology

The 4G data rates will vary depending on the number of channels that are available, and can be
used. The channels that can be used will be cleaner thanks to technologies like adaptive
processing, which detects interference on a channel and improves reception by actively
switching channels to avoid interference.

4G networks will also use smart antenna technology, which is used to aim the radio signal in the
direction of the receiver in the terminal from the base station. When teamed up with adaptive
techniques, multiple antennas can cancel out more interference while enhancing the signal.

The 4G plans are still years away, but transitioning from 3G to 4G should be seamless for
customers because 4G will have evolved from 3G. Users won't even have to get new phones.
Digital applications are getting more common lately and are creating an increasing demand for
broadband communication systems. The technical requirements for related products are very
high but solutions must be cheap to implement since we are essentially talking about consumer
products. For Satellite and for Cable; such cost-efficient solutions are already about for the
terrestrial link (i.e. original TV broadcasting) the requirements are so high that the 'standard'
solutions are no longer an option. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a
technology that allows transmitting very high data rates over channels at a comparable low
complexity. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is the choice of the transmission
method for the European digital radio (DAB) and Digital TV (DVB-T) standard. Owing to its
great benefit’s OFDM is being considered for future broadband application such as wireless
ATM as well.

How OFDM works

First of all the FDM part - Frequency division multiplexing is a technology that transmits several
signals at the same time over a single transmission path, in a medium such as a cable or wireless
system. Each signal is transmitted inside its own unique frequency range (the carrier frequency),
which is then modulated by the data that is needing to be transmitted.

Orthogonal FDM's spread spectrum technique spreads the data over a lot of carriers that are
spaced apart at precise frequencies. This spacing provides the "orthogonality" in this method
which prevents the receivers/demodulators from seeing frequencies other than their own specific
one. The main benefit of OFDM is high spectral efficiency, but with OFDM you also get; high
resiliency to RF interference, and the multi-path distortion is lower. This is handy because in a
standard terrestrial broadcasting situation there are high amounts of multipath-channels (e.g. the
signal that was sent arrives at the receiving end using multiple paths of different lengths). Since
the various versions of the signal interfere with each other, known as inter symbol interference
(ISI) it becomes incredibly hard to extract the original information.

When OFDM was first implemented, it was by using banks of sinusoidal generators,
e.g. just placing up a whole lot of single carriers in parallel. The use of the discrete
Fourier transform (DFT) was originally proposed in 1971 by Weinstein and Ebert,
which greatly reduces the implementation complexity of OFDM systems. This was
further reduced by the development of the fast Fourier transform (FFT). Shortly
after an equalisation algorithm was implemented in order to help suppress both ISI
and intersubcarrier interference, which is caused by the channel impulse response
and timing and frequency errors.

In OFDM the subcarrier pulse which is used for transmission is rectangular. This is
why the capability of pulse forming and modulation can be performed by an IDFT,
which can be generated very efficiently as an IFFT. Because of this, the receiver
only needs a FFT to reverse this process. Taking into account the theories of the
Fourier Transform the rectangular pulse shape will end up as a sin(x)/x style of
spectrum of the subcarriers. In traditional FDM the sub-channels aren’t orthogonal
therefore need to be separated by guard bands which obviously wastes much
needed spectrum.

Because an IIFT is used for modulation in OFDM, this spacing of the subcarriers is
done in such a way the frequency where we evaluate the received signal all other
signals are zero thus allowing the subchannels to overlap. But because of this, for
an OFDM system to work using this method, the receiver and the transmitter must
be in perfect synch, and there can’t be any multipath fading, which is unusual since
finding a fix to this is one of the main goals of OFDM.

Luckily there is an easy way to solve this problem. If a guard interval is used, which
is larger than the expected delay spread, which is done by artificially extending the
symbol time and then removing this extension at the receiver, the problem is solved
but with only a minimal loss in bandwidth.